There are more trends in healthcare. Here are three major themes to pull from the trends listed above.

 

Theme 1: Decrease Costs aka "Cost-Effective Care" via improved people, processes, and technology

 

Theme 2: Increase Revenue / Customer via development of new/premium offerings

 

Theme 3: Gain "purchasing power" via becoming irreplaceable so others are dependent on you

 

The company's with the most cash to invest in these three themes will win.

 

The impact to practices/clinics:

Small groups, with low control of their local market, will struggle to create the cash-flow needed to develop scalable methods at the levels of their larger competitors.

 

For this reason, we expect the consolidation trend to continue towards large provider groups. 

 

Other Provider Models

Fully integrated payor-provider models have shown their ability to take over markets. These incentive aligned organizations can move quickly to find the most cost-effective methods of care. If they take hold of your market, they may capture a significant portion of it.

 

Major employers (Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan) have decided to take on the challenge themselves and may mirror fully integrated payors. 

 

 

In Conclusion

It's impossible to know what the future will hold. The healthcare industry will likely follow the competitive trends experienced by countless industries before.

 

Which trends and when is what countless private equity firms, provider groups and insurances will try to figure out.  

 

In general:

1. If you're small, be irreplaceable via your products or services. 

2. If you're big, be so big, your market depends on you.

3. If you can't achieve, either consider joining forces with a group that can.

 

More information on being acquired or acquiring care providers can be found here.

 

High-level actions you can take based on this article:

1. Understand how you're currently positioned for long-term success

2. Develop short-term and long-term roadmaps for long-term success